Police are frantically looking for a California woman, who hasn't been seen since she left her house 10 days back after telling her stepdad that she was going to the gym. Sara Celeste Otero, 28, was last seen on January 28 in the 1200 block of Alderney Court in Oceanside, California, some 40 miles north of San Diego, according to Oceanside Police.
The family has filed a missing person's report with the Oceanside Police Department and a search is on for Otero. Family members are now asking for public help to locate Otero was last seen wearing a green military-style jacket and bronze leggings.
Sudden Disappearance
On January 28, Otero told her stepfather that she was going to the gym. She left home around 8:40 am and has been off since 10 a.m. that morning, family members told Fox News.
It is not known what happened to her as Otero never returned home. After the family started enquiring, they found that she never went to the gym.
Her stepsister, who only wanted to be identified only by her first name Chelsea, told Fox News that she never visited the gym and that the friend she said she planned to meet had no information about their gym plans.
Ryan Bear, Otero's stepbrother, speculated that she might have gone to the beach to unwind, but she didn't show up to work that night, which was unusual.
"She had never missed a day of work," he said.
"We've got very little details. And that's the entire reason that we're trying to ask the public for any and all information at this point, because we don't know anything," Bear said.
The family has since filed a police complaint but even they haven't been able to gather any information about Otero.
Mystery Deepens
Otero's boyfriend, whom she's only met over Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was at his own job the morning she went missing, according to Bear. Despite the fact that they had only been dating for a short time, the boyfriend is "devastated," according to Chelsea, who added that the family does not expect any foul play on his behalf.
According to Oceanside Police, Otero was last seen coming out of her house and then driving a charcoal Subaru Outback on the 1200 block of Aldernay Court.
That said family members are worried that Otero may have harmed herself as her siblings claim she has a history of drug abuse although she has been sober for two years.
"She's grappling with a lot, she shared that she was feeling depressed...it's affected [her and her boyfriend's] relationship," Chelsea said.
Otero is a White woman, 5 feet, 6 inches tall, weighing 130 pounds. In a photo provided by police, she is wearing glasses and has brown hair with blonde highlights.
Otero is a cherished sister, daughter, and longtime Oceanside resident who works at the Mission Avenue Bar & Grill, according to friends. The restaurant posted on social media about Otero's disappearance.
"She enjoys and is invigorated by crowds, and she would go out of her way to strike up a conversation with anyone," Bear told CBS 8.
Nothing, according to Bear, has brought them closer in the previous 22 years. Outside of her day job as a massage therapist, he said Otero was active in a variety of groups.
